Dabble DB Improves their combo boxes

It’s a simple thing, but user interface is so important and when developers care about that it makes a huge difference for users.  The folks at Dabble DB  have a post on their blog about combo boxes that is a good read.  Why?  Because it shows, to me at least, that they are thinking about what users need:

Today’s blog post isn’t about a new feature to Dabble DB, but to me, the user interface designer, it feels just as significant.

Interface design on the web can be both simple and complex. The simple path is often the wisest. Don’t deviate from what everyone else does and people will figure out your interface. That’s why you see blue links everywhere on the web: not because there’s anything special about blue, but because that’s what everyone is used to.

Sometimes though, the norm doesn’t quite cut it. Or worse, there is no norm to do the cutting in the first place. One example is the combo box widget. A “combo box” is what we design nerds call it when a text box has a drop-down menu attached and they interact. (And a “widget” is interface-design-speak for a thing that you interact with, like a text box or a button.) In theory, when you start typing in the text box, a drop-down menu appears below, and shows choices related to what you’ve typed. Ideally, it changes quickly as you type. Source: Dabble DB Blog: Building a better widget

Simple.  Elegant.  Important.  Love it.  Props to them.

I still haven’t used Dabble DB, to be honest, but that’s only because I’m not generally a DB guy.  I’ve talked with Avi a bunch, last time was Office 2.0.  I think I need to touchbase again and see what’s up with Dabble.